My second mission president was the last president of the Austria Vienna Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was very sad for me to hear that my mission had been consolidated. It didn't help any to hear Elder Holland tell my grandfather that they didn't know why those missions were not successful. I worked very hard.
I took the Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg for free because the guide knew we were missionaries and didn't charge us. The only place I didn't get to see was the theater at the end of the movie where they escape the Nazis because you can't get in there without buying a ticket to a concert and they were prohibitively expensive for a person on my budget. That movie came alive for me.
So, the remaining five German Missions will now be reduced to three: Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich.
It's bad enough to see it in a generation, but to see this happen ten years after I returned home made me kind of sad today.
Austria was a fine time for me. It was a lot of hard work, but it is largely responsible for who and how I am today. I grew up there, and it's kind of sad to think that few people if any will ever follow up or follow through on what I sowed if any of the seeds even took root. John Taylor told Heber J Grant upon his return from Japan that "his success was that he continued on in the absence of success".
I will miss those German missions and the fine people I met. Godspeed and Gruess Di' Gott.
I took the Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg for free because the guide knew we were missionaries and didn't charge us. The only place I didn't get to see was the theater at the end of the movie where they escape the Nazis because you can't get in there without buying a ticket to a concert and they were prohibitively expensive for a person on my budget. That movie came alive for me.
So, the remaining five German Missions will now be reduced to three: Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich.
It's bad enough to see it in a generation, but to see this happen ten years after I returned home made me kind of sad today.
Austria was a fine time for me. It was a lot of hard work, but it is largely responsible for who and how I am today. I grew up there, and it's kind of sad to think that few people if any will ever follow up or follow through on what I sowed if any of the seeds even took root. John Taylor told Heber J Grant upon his return from Japan that "his success was that he continued on in the absence of success".
I will miss those German missions and the fine people I met. Godspeed and Gruess Di' Gott.
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